Adsorption equilibrium and breakthrough analysis for NO adsorption on activated carbons at low temperatures Original Research Article

In this work, peat was used as a precursor to produce activated carbons, through pyrolysis at 800 °C, followed by activation with steam at 800 °C. The carbons produced were characterized and used for NO adsorption in the absence of oxygen, and the results were compared with those on a commercial activated carbon. The adsorptive and kinetic behavior patterns of NO on different carbons were investigated using the breakthrough curve method for temperatures in the range between 45 °C and 85 °C. The equilibrium adsorption of NO was described according to a linear model for NO concentrations up to 5%. The NO adsorption capacity depended indirectly on both the BET surface area and oxygen functional group content of the carbon, and increased as the oxygen content increased. The adsorption was reversible and the enthalpy of adsorption was lower than 10 kJ mol−1. The linear driving force model was used to describe the breakthrough curves and the results showed that this model was suitable to describe the adsorption of NO on activated carbons in a fixed-bed.